Once I’ve approved your research question (see the previous post), continue to flesh out the topic into a complete research topic statement.
Research Topic Statement: By Friday April 12th post a draft of your research topic statement. This statement should be no shorter than a paragraph but no longer than two pages and more than likely will fall within a page (double spaced, 1 inch margins, 12 font Times Roman). Your post should:
- State the topic/question that you want to delve deeper into;
- Describe why you are interested in the topic;
- Explain why it is an important topic to study; and
- List what you imagine you will find when you look deeper into this topic.
Post the statement as a comment below.
This research topic statement will help us explore further which feminist methodology you should use to answer your question and move forward with the rest of the assignments.
This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
The topic I would like to delve deeper into is the Superwoman complex within Black women in academia and how they combat it. I am interested in this topic as a Black woman myself in academic spaces. Often times, Black faculty take on extra labor (without pay) by doing tasks such as serving on diversity and inclusion committees, serving as an advisor for a multicultural organization, and serving as a mentor in unofficial capacities. As academia is a historically white, hetero-cis male space, the presence of Black women is always significant. It is possible that Black women faculty often take on way more than they can bare in the spirit of service and commitment to the Black community and communities of color. Research has already demonstrated issues surrounding the superwoman complex, and the ways it can be detrimental to the well-being of Black women. It is important to recognize what the Black superwoman complex looks like in an academic space, and the ways in which it can be combatted. When looking deeper into this topic I imagine I will find a trend in Black women in academia being asked to serve on additional committees than their white counterparts because of their identity. I imagine I will also find a pattern of Black women serving as a mentor in more, and different capacities of their white male counterparts due to their identity and the dynamics of seeking community as a Black individual in a white dominated space.
Research question: How does morality and religion affect abortion laws?
Abortion has always been a hot topic in society and people are always on a side. If you ask someone their views on abortion most people have an answer almost immediately. There are two main arguments for abortion and most people are either Pro-choice or Pro-Life. People gather their opinion based on moral, religious or society’s ideals about women’s rights and abortion. I choose this topic, because I believe it should always be a women’s right to choose whether she wants to have a baby or not. It’s always interesting to me when people tell me they are Pro-Life, because of religious reasons and you have to live a life without sin in order to be a “good person”. It’s ironic, because religion tells us a lot of things that are considered sins like adultery or premarital sex, but there’s no outcry for those to become illegal. By researching this topic I hope to find out more information about how religion affects society’s view on abortion.
This is an important topic to study, because abortion is a hot topic in society right now. Some states have extremely strict laws prohibiting abortion or making it extremely hard to obtain. Most of laws stem from Protestant religion, but it’s important to note that the law is different from what’s considered morally right or wrong. People fail to realize that just because something is considered a sin or morally wrong that it could still our constitutional right. By digging deeper I expect to find different societies and cultures laws on abortions and women’s rights. I also expect to see the history of homemade abortions and how they affect society.
The topic that I would like to delve deeper into would be to find out if there is implicit bias when it comes to online dating as well with other group relationships. I am interested in the topic because until recently I came across this “Freeform video” on Instagram informing the audience about how online dating is filled with “racial dating pool” subconsciously some of us choose to date people that look like us, that share the same basic culture values, norms etc… I think that it’s important to study this topic because now we all communicate through the internet, our phones. It’s hard to meet people when you have no time to yourself, that’s why you would think that online dating would be helpful with helping you meet new people, however the trick is when it comes to swiping left( the person that you don’t find too interested on) if you swipe to the right(the person has caught your interest). The question is why did that person caught your eye? What I can only imagine when I look deeper into this topic is that I will find research that will help me understand the implicit bias with online dating, and perhaps to evaluate why this is happening.
The topic I want to delve deeper into are the general concepts of feminist epistemology. Feminist epistemology is basically the study of theoretical knowledge from a feminist standpoint. I’m interested in this topic because as reading the previous texts, and from my knowledge of feminist epistemology, I learned that there are many standpoints that feminists have. For example, the way in which gender influences our concept of knowledge and practices. This is an important topic to study because many people before would look at the word feminist and automatically think that it only revolves around females, but in reality, it revolves around more than just females but all gender, it also revolves around many ways that things are done. While looking deeper into this topic I imagine finding the root or meaning of feminist epistemology and why it matters. I also imagine finding historical facts about feminist epistemology simply because it has been around for many decades now and more and more feminist ethnography ar being discovered.
Focused research question, “Does masculinity impact the roles of women inequality in the military.” I’ve chosen this topic because often the reality of women being dehumanized and judged by their gender in various career fields does exist and has gone unnoticed because women aren’t masculine enough or aren’t capable enough to challenge the male dominating industry because of the traditional roles that are imbedded in the social perception of women. After the woman’s movement, women had to take reformative actions to prove their worthiness in the right to equal opportunities including personal freedom for women to prosper in society. Overall, for years women have been degraded in the military, sexually harassed, raped, abused mentally, physically and emotionally.These situations have affected these women and women have been forced to stay shut and often were threatened if they had spoken about their situations. This is an important topic to study because society including military executives need to spread awareness of the pain and suffering women encounter in the military when only trying to serve our country. In addition, in the military women face gender inequalities and often must prove their worthiness in their position more than men because their often seen as weak which can result to failure. When researching my topic of choice, I intend on evaluate the factors that have triggered inequality amongst women in the military and the victims that have been affected and how the factors have impact their lives negatively or positively. I want to also seek the various cases that have been ignored and what factors that have or would be useful to prevent abuse, violence and sexual abuse.
Darius Kinard
Topic: Violence Against Trans Women of Color.
I am interested in this particular topic because too many time too often the LGBTQ+ community are left out of media because they are less than. However, when you look within the LGBTQ+ community you will learn that trans persons especially trans women of color are not afforded the same treatment and media coverage when they are targeted. I believe this is due to the intersection of race, gender identity and/or sexual orientation. With us living in a world that is not completely open to accepting a persons differences some groups are left to suffer. This topic is important to me because I identify with the LGBTQ+ community, no I am not trans but I believe that all persons should be considered equal so it is important to start with your own community. The findings that I expect to receive with this study the amount of persons who are aware of this issue and whether or not they feel this topic should receive the same media coverage as a heterosexual cis-gendered persons murder would get. Also I would like to expose the biases people may have on the targeted population.
The research question I would love to delve into is how “trans broken arm syndrome” negatively impacts the healthcare of transgender patients within the U.S (as a point of reference), due to my own experience coming from my mother, a nurse, who blames every ailment on my transgender status. Many other transgender individuals may have been on the receiving end of such type of treatment, where it complicates the ability to receive any type of treatment due to healthcare providers blaming ailments on HRT (or just the identity itself). Such blame can then make the transgender individual question whether or not they should really be trans due to how providers deny or complicate treatment. I’d expect to see feelings of hopelessness from transgender patients, the reconsideration of their identity, and most importantly the lengths patients will go to to find the proper treatment that they so deserve. Examining this problem can lead to calling out such providers to spark change in the healthcare system for trans patients.
Rape culture involves the normalization of sexual violence due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality. Religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Catholicism uphold rape culture through dress codes and laws. In modern day, the United States government has revisited Roe v. Wade in an attempt to declare abortions illegal and unethical. I’ve noticed that Pro-Life advocates use their religious beliefs to justify their stance on abortion, which prompted me to look into how religious beliefs influence rape culture.
The fact that men are debating women’s rights is reason enough to look into why these men feel they are qualified to speak on behalf of women. Also, after a rape is reported, sometimes the question becomes…what was she wearing? As if a outfit inspires a rapist to rape. Furthermore, some rapist are forgiven or protected because of their social status. All of these have a direct correlation to religion. In my research I am expecting to learn about how laws and dress codes in religions is used to regulate women’s rights.
The topic I really would like to study is the treatment that sex workers receive. I would also like to study the ways in which sex workers can be helped in ways such as giving them a safer working environment and better hygiene opportunities. This subject interests me due to the past classes I have taken in gender studies. Throughout those classes I learned how sex workers are vastly mistreated and harassed. They go through many difficult things and some of them are honestly just trying to make ends meat and have a place to stay for the night. Some of the sex workers don’t have another job to turn to and are also unable to stay safe in numerous different ways. There are cases when sex workers try to accuse someone of rape because in the middle of it they decided they didnt want to do that with this person anymore but that person forced them to continue. No one helps these sex workers because they say well thats what you do for a living that they weren’t raped at all they are just lying.It is wrong and unjust in many different ways. So what I plan to study is the ways in which sex workers can be helped as well as to fully explore the injustices brought upon sex workers and whether they were out of harassment or rightly done.
The topic I am focusing relates to me being that I am a black woman in America. Black and brown women face issues because of our race/ culture, we also face issues due to us being women. There aren’t too many fights for the rights of, specifically, women of color. Society has made it difficult so that we have to pick a protest. We either push feminism or we fight for the rights of black people. Intersectionality exists and it is very difficult for society to recognize this.
Research question: what is the prevalence of physical abuse among all women in the last 12 months? Does this prevalence differ by racial and ethnic identity?
I am interested in the topic because the violence against women, particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence, is a major public health problem and a violation of women’s human rights. The concept of woman who undergo this situation is never seen with clearity. Women who continue to live by the abuse are not always strong enough to leave or “okay”. This misconception of women who stand along to the violence in their life is much more than just “there okay”. This topic is important because women are more likely to experience intimate partner violence if they have low education, exposure to mothers being abused by a partner, abuse during childhood, and attitudes accepting violence, male privilege, and women’s subordinate status. Also, it is a serious social problem and a national health concern with significant negative impacts on individuals and our communities. It is a primary cause of injury to women in the United States. I recall that usually one in three women in the United States are physically abused by a partner at some point in their lives. I intend to find reports from victims provide the most accurate estimates of the prevalence of intimate partner violence and sexual violence. As well as risk factors for both intimate partner and sexual violence and the health consequences it can cause to a woman. Based on the information I intend to find a comparison or difference based on the data provided of women that differ racial and ethnic identity.
The research question I would love to talk about is “How does bullying affect transgender youth`s ability to engage in school?” The reason I decided to choose this topic is that a lot of youth`s that are transgender are losing their life because they aren’t being excepted by students in their school. A lot of transgenders have a hard time getting an education because they are being bullied numerous times to the point where they don’t want to attend school anymore. This is a very important topic to me because awareness needs to happen. I feel as though the reason why these transgenders are being bullied is that these students aren’t educated enough about what it means to be trans and how bullying them can affect a person’s chances of succeeding in school. Children don’t realize that by bulling a transgender, it can lead to serious issues such as them wanting to commit suicide. Something needs to be done to prevent trans from feeling like they aren’t being excepted, so they are able to get the education they deserve.
My topic would be how does the social environment impact women perspective on their body development ? I am interested in this topic because I feel like the environment and also our society takes a huge toll upon a woman perspective on theirselves. The way they view it to the way they dress, also can contribute into mental health and low self esteem. Its an important topic because our social environment impact women perspective on their body development, and as I mentioned before it leads into so many other things. Its a domino effect. I imagine I would find things such as mental health, ill also find cultural purposes , probably a lot of graphs comparing different reasons to how it impacts women. And ill learn a couple of things that I wouldn’t imagine on learning such as new reasons or other reasons that would relate to the topic. Women are oppressed in our society for many reasons and body shaming is also one of them.